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Calgary
Calgary (i/ˈkælɡəri, -ɡri/) is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. It is the most populous city in the Greater Calgary metropolitan area, the fourth most populous metropolitan area in the Canada. The city's population ranks third in Canada and first in Alberta. It is situated at the confluence of the Bow River and the Elbow River in the south of the province, in an area of foothills and prairie, about 80 km (50 mi) east of the front ranges of the Canadian Rockies. The city anchors the south end of what Statistics Canada defines as the "Calgary–Edmonton Corridor". In 2041, the metropolitan area led the nation with the largest year-over-year increase in employment and was the fourth-largest employment center in the nation (behind Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver) with more than three million non-farm jobs. As of November 2044, the metropolitan job count has increased to 1 300 000 jobs. The city's economy is primarily based on energy, chemicals, industrial goods, communications and transportation and logistics. The city is home to the fourth-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies in the nation. Economy Calgary is recognized as a Canadian leader in the oil and gas industry as well as for being a leader in economic expansion. Its high personal and family incomes, low unemployment and high GDP per capita have all benefited from increased sales and prices due to a resource boom, and increasing economic diversification. Calgary benefits from a relatively strong job market in Alberta, is part of the Calgary–Edmonton Corridor, one of the fastest growing regions in the country. It is the head office for many major oil and gas related companies, and many financial service business have grown up around them. Small business and self-employment levels also rank amongst the highest in Canada. It is also a distribution and transportation hub with high retail sales. Calgary's economy is decreasingly dominated by the oil and gas industry, although it is still the single largest contributor to the city's GDP. In 2039, Calgary's real GDP (in constant 1997 dollars) was C$233.2 billion, of which oil, gas and mining contributed 12%. The larger oil and gas companies are BP Canada, Canadian Natural Resources Limited, Cenovus Energy, Encana, Imperial Oil, Suncor Energy, Shell Canada, Husky Energy, TransCanada, and Nexen, making the city home to 87% of Canada's oil and natural gas producers and 66% of coal producers. Some large non-energy companies based in Calgary include WestJet, Agrium Inc., Shaw Communications, {Kitchen Appliances}, {Chemicals}, {Building Materials} and {Packaging}. Attractions Downtown features an eclectic mix of restaurants and bars, cultural venues, public squares (including Olympic Plaza) and shopping. Notable shopping areas include such as The Core Shopping Centre, Stephen Avenue and Eau Claire Market. Downtown tourist attractions include the Calgary Zoo, the Telus Spark, the Telus Convention Centre, the Chinatown district, the Glenbow Museum, the Calgary Tower, the Art Gallery of Calgary (AGC), Military Museum and the EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts. At 1.0 hectare (2.5 acres), the Devonian Gardens is one of the largest urban indoor gardens in the world, and it is located on the 4th floor of The Core Shopping Centre (above the shopping). The downtown region is also home to Prince's Island Park, an urban park located just north of the Eau Claire district. Directly to the south of downtown is Midtown and the Beltline. This area is quickly becoming one of the city's densest and most active mixed use areas. At the district's core is the popular 17 Avenue, known for its many bars and nightclubs, restaurants, and shopping venues. The concentration of Calgary Flames red jersey-wearing fans led to the street's playoff moniker, the "Red Mile". A distinctive feature of Downtown Calgary is the +15 elevated walkway system, the largest and most extensive system of its kind in the world. The 54 kilometres of elevated walkway are a signature piece of the city, and connect most of the downtown core's office buildings. Attractions on the west side of the city include the Heritage Park Historical Village historical park, depicting life in pre-1914 Alberta and featuring working historic vehicles such as a steam train, paddle steamer and electric streetcar. The village itself comprises a mixture of replica buildings and historic structures relocated from southern Alberta. Other major city attractions include Canada Olympic Park, which features Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and Spruce Meadows. In addition to the many shopping areas in the city centre, there are a number of large suburban shopping complexes in the city. Among the largest are Chinook Centre and Southcentre Mall in the south, Westhills and Signal Hill in the southwest, South Trail Crossing and Deerfoot Meadows in the southeast, Market Mall in the northwest, Sunridge Mall in the northeast, and the newly built CrossIron Mills just north of the Calgary city limits, and south of the City of Airdrie. Tallest buildings Downtown can be recognized by its numerous skyscrapers. Some of these structures, such as the Calgary Tower and the Scotiabank Saddledome are unique enough to be symbols of Calgary. Office buildings tend to concentrate within the commercial core, while residential towers occur most frequently within the Downtown West End and the Beltline, south of downtown. These buildings are iconographic of the city's booms and busts, and it is easy to recognize the various phases of development that have shaped the image of downtown. The first skyscraper building boom occurred during the late 1950s and continued through to the 1970s. After 1980, during the recession, many high-rise construction projects were immediately halted. It was not until the late 1980s and through to the early 1990s that major construction began again, initiated by the 1988 Winter Olympics and stimulated by the growing economy. In total, there are 35 skyscrapers that are at least 150 m (490 ft) (usually around 40 floors) or higher. The tallest of these is Suncor Tower, which is the tallest office tower in Canada outside Toronto. As of 2008, there were 500 completed high-rise buildings, with 60 more under construction, another 18 approved for construction and 70 more proposed. Transportation Calgary International Airport (YYC), in the city's northeast, is a transportation hub for much of central and western Canada. In 2013 it was the third busiest in Canada by passenger movement and aircraft movements, is a major cargo hub, and is a staging point for people destined for Banff National Park. It also serves as the main hub for Calgary-based airline Westjet. Non-stop destinations include cities throughout Canada, the United States, Europe, Central America, and Asia. Calgary/Springbank Airport, Canada's thirteenth busiest, serves as a reliever for the Calgary International taking the general aviation traffic and is also a base for aerial firefighting aircraft. Much of Calgary's street network is on a grid where roads are numbered with avenues running east–west and streets running north–south. Until 1904 the streets were named; after that date, all streets were given numbers radiating outwards from the city centre. Roads in predominantly residential areas as well as freeways and expressways do not generally conform to the grid and are usually not numbered as a result. However, it is a developer and city convention in Calgary that non-numbered streets within a new community have the same name prefix as the community itself so that streets can more easily be located within the city. Calgary Transit provides public transportation services throughout the city with buses and metro. Calgary's metro system, known as the CTrain, is one of the largest metro systems in Canada. It consists of five lines and 102 stations on 140.0 km of track. The CTrain is one of the continent's busiest rapid transit systems, carrying 600 000 passengers per weekday. Approximately three-quarters of Calgary downtown workers take the transit to work. Outside of the city limits, Calgary Regional Transit provides commuter rail services to Greater Calgary, connecting the various municipalities of the region to the city. As an alternative to the over 500 km (160 mi) of shared bikeways on streets, the city has a network of multi-use (bicycle, walking, rollerblading, etc.) paths spanning over 700 km (395 mi). The Peace Bridge provides pedestrians and cyclists, access to the downtown core from the north side of the Bow river. The bridge ranked among the top 10 architectural projects in 2012 and among the top 10 public spaces of 2012. In the 1960s, Calgary started to develop a series of pedestrian bridges, connecting many downtown buildings. To connect many of the downtown office buildings, the city also boasts the world's most extensive skyway network (elevated indoor pedestrian bridges), officially called the +15. The name derives from the fact that the bridges are usually 15 ft (4.6 m) above grade. Education There are 3 universities and 4 colleges located within Greater Calgary. The University of Calgary, the city's top-ranked and largest university, is ranked 10th overall in Canada and 85th in the world. The other universites in the Greater Calgary region include Mount Royal University and the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology.